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• Liveable, loveable, charitable Lodi

• Making the grade

• More locals eyeing clean alternatives to traditional fireplaces, wood fires

November 21st, 2009

• Logbook

• Holiday drive spreads cheer to U.S. troops

• Galt High students want board to approve open-campus policy

• Poisoning victims remain hospitalized

• Expert: Half a mushroom cap can be deadly

• Tokay grad files claim over Lodi's Grape Bowl

• Lodi Middle School holds annual Turkey Trot

• Regional Roundup

• No motive or suspect in shooting

• Sacramento cop arrested for alleged kidnapping

November 20th, 2009

• Acampo woman killed

• Salvation Army Kettle Kickoff

• Advocacy groups sue East Bay Municipal Utility District over Pardee expansion

• Regional Roundup

• Galt plans to help residents with energy-efficient projects

• Stable southeast of Lodi approved

• One year after a heart attack, Lodi's Judy Mims thanks rescuers

• National Guard troops return home in time for the holidays

• Real estate market gets on more solid ground

November 19th, 2009

• Operation: Christmas

• Logbook

• Suspect arrested after hiding in fridge

• Chase ends in crash

• Galt Joint Union High School Distric hires new superintendent

• Sales tax hike yields dividends: 5 new officers join Galt Police

• Lodi Unified School District board votes to cancel summer school for 2010

• Water surges in Mokelumne River yield more salmon

• Lodi City Council will consider redevelopment next June

• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22

• Corrections

November 18th, 2009

• Regional Roundup

• Paranormal group conducts second investigation of building

• Congress allocates money for local water projects

• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react

• Lodi man finds wife's ashes during police display of stolen property

• Galt City Council rejects study on rent stabilization

November 17th, 2009

• Paying tribute to a Lodian

• Lodi Budget and Finance Committee to look into ways to save money on employee benefits

• Regional Roundup

• Decision on summer school expected at tonight's Lodi Unified School District meeting

• Clements gets free water rescue boat

• Redevelopment to be discussed by Lodi City Council again

• Court reinstates death penalty for killer of Lodi grad

• Clarification

November 16th, 2009

• Correction

• Public Meetings

• City Council 'triple-dog dared' to ditch cars, use Lodi buses

• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi

• Lodi's First Sip event showcases area wineries' latest vintages

• Three members of Lodi-area family fall ill after eating poisonous mushrooms they reportedly found at Lodi Lake

• Regional Roundup

November 14th, 2009

• Galt school district narrows superintendent search to one

• Regional Roundup

• Despite budget cuts, some Lodi Unified School District salaries continue to rise

• Watchful neighbor in Lodi helped bust suspected burglars

• New Galt city manager juggles job, family

• Despite an increase in homeless students, school districts look to bolster enrollment, raise revenue

• A first look at 2009 vintages at Lodi's First Sip wine-tasting event

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• The country's mess is our fault (170)
• Obama is not a moderate (130)
• Sarah Palin's book hits the shelves: Locals react (73)
• Public health care is a Christian option (52)
• Lodi City Council plans to cap number of taco trucks at 22 (50)
• The haves should help the have-nots (30)
• Tokay in, traveling to unbeaten No. 3 Grant for football playoffs (25)
• Government-run health care is a bad idea (23)
• Young woman fatally shot at Acampo home (17)
• Sierra Adventure store to close after four years in Downtown Lodi (16)

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Our veterans suffer after their fighting is finished

I am surprised that I have forgotten so much recent U.S. history.

But when I started research on this week's Veterans Day column, I am reminded that since the Vietnam War that ended more than 30 years ago, the U.S. has sent troops into battle or on peacekeeping missions in nine different engagements.

Suspecting that you, like me, cannot name them all without help, here in chronological order is the list: Lebanon (1982-1984); Grenada (1983); Panama (1989-1990); Persian Gulf War (1990-1991); Somalia (1992-1993); Haiti (1994-1995); Yugoslavia (1998-1999); Afghanistan (2002-) and Iraq (2003-).

In all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, America has more than 25 million living veterans including 8 million from the Vietnam era. More than 4 million World War II veterans survive as well as an approximate 100 from World War I.

The consensus estimate is that about 1.5 million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan with that figure increasing by 100,000 annually.

Based on Pentagon projections that U.S. involvement in the Middle East could continue another 8-12 years that will bring the total uniformed personnel to about 2.5 million.

Like others, I wonder what the U.S. goal is in Iraq. Last week, in a Washington Post op-ed piece titled "The Real Iraq We Knew," 12 former Army captains called for either a voluntary military to mount a more aggressive campaign against the insurgents or an immediate withdrawal.

But what may await veterans when they return home is as frightening as what they encountered on the battlefield.

According to the Web site maintained by former E-5 Larry Scott Veterans For Common Sense, and based on government data reported by the Associated Press, in its story "Iraq, Afghan Vets at Risk for Suicide" at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, and the end of 2005 took their own lives. And an additional 147 troops killed themselves in Iraq or Afghanistan since the wars began — total suicides, 430.

As appalling as that count is, it is incomplete. Excluded are members of the military who returned from Iraq and then killed themselves before being discharged from the service — men like Sgt Brian Rand who, after he returned from his second Iraqi tour, shot himself in the head.

Also not included are the deaths of men like Sgt. James Dean who was shot by Maryland state troopers after he barricaded himself in his father's farmhouse. Observers call those "suicide by cop."

Because of a growing concern over veteran suicides, President Bush signed the Joshua Omvig suicide prevention bill on Monday, providing improved screening and treatment for at-risk veterans. Omvig was 22-year-old soldier from Iowa who, in December 2005 after he returned from Iraq, killed himself.

Suicides in Iraq have occurred since the early days of the wars. But awareness was heightened when the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops — the highest level in 26 years of record keeping.

Dr. Dan Blazer, a Duke University Medical Center psychiatry professor who served this year on the military's mental health task force, said improved treatment might help some.

But Blazer still treats World War II veterans for post-traumatic shock. So his concern for the Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers is high.

"There's still going to be individuals that just totally slip through all of these safety nets that we construct to try to help things in the aftermath," Blazer told the Associated Press.

Added Blazer: "Suicide is a cost of war. It's a big one."

The thought that a young man or woman could enlist and fight for his country in the Middle East only to die at his own hand is another ugly chapter in an increasingly senseless war.

The best thing that all of us can do for our veterans is, in the words of Woodbridge's Stacey Beintema, whose son Army Sgt. Nicholas Beintema was wounded in 2005 near Tal Afar during Operation Iraqi Freedom, to "say a prayer for each and every one of the brave men and women fighting oversees, and for their families who are fighting right along with them — fighting to bring them home safe and sound."

Contact Joe Guzzardi at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.